Changing China: Culture, Community, and Citizenship. Join Western faculty and Western students on this study abroad experience of a lifetime and gain a global perspective on one of the oldest civilizations with the fastest economic growth rate in the world. This course will serve as a window through which the students can experience and understand multifaceted nature of change and continuity in Chinese society today.

Prerequisites:
Students have the choice to take this course as a capstone (with 3 WP credits) or regular elective course (with no WP credit). For those who wish to take it as a capstone course, you have to have successfully completed the two core courses in sociology major--SOC 306 Research Methods in Sociology and SOC 302 Classical Sociological Theory. No prerequisite is needed for those who wish to take it as a non-capstone course. To register the course, with as capstone or non-capstone, the applicants will need to be interviewed by at least one of the faculty members to obtain an override code.

Join Western faculty and Western students on this study abroad experience of a lifetime and gain a global perspective on one of the oldest civilizations with the fastest economic growth rate in the world. This course will serve as a window through which the students can experience and understand multifaceted nature of change and continuity in Chinese society today.

Learn more about this program:

Program Details

The goal of this course is to help students gain a global perspective on culture, community, and citizenship through intensive reading, writing about, and traveling in China. Undoubtedly, China is undergoing massive social transformations in all dimensions of its society due to its rapid economic growth. How do citizens, families, communities and governments respond to many challenges brought by these rapid changes? More specifically, this course focuses on three themes of contemporary Chinese society: social stratification, political control, and social change.

This course is an upper-division elective course. Students who participate in the program (2-week pre-departure seminars, 4-week field trips, and 2-week post-trip seminars in September, October, and November of 2014 and successfully complete the program will receive 15 western credits in Sociology.

Instructor

Dr. Baozhen Luo was born and raised in China. She came to the U.S. after obtaining her BA degree in Journalism in China in 2003. Later in 2009, she obtained a Ph.D. degree in Sociology from Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA).

Studying abroad has changed her life--it broadened her horizon, led her to a fulfilling career, and most importantly empowered and bettered her as a person. Luo’s favorite writer David Mitchell says “Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” She looks forward to bringing more and more WWU students to China and experience the life-changing effect of studying abroad.